


Secrets of a Middle Brother

by TiffanyC1



Series: What Brothers Are For [7]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-10-10
Packaged: 2018-03-21 12:36:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3692538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TiffanyC1/pseuds/TiffanyC1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean's hiding something from his brothers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Coping with Treason

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize, it belongs to WWE. I'm not making money from this, so don't sue.

Notes: I am not a doctor, but I did do a lot of research into this.

DSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSR

Dean Ambrose was a man of many secrets, many of which weren’t really secrets, just things that only a select few people knew. Things like how bad his childhood really was, some of the ways he made a living while learning to wrestle that would never sound good in a sound bite, but there were still things he kept to himself. Even Roman, Seth, Sami, and Drake, whom he trusted implicitly, couldn’t say they knew absolutely everything about him.

He stared at the collection of things his doctor had told him he was going to need to survive from now on. He was diabetic. He was a fucking diabetic. The idea of being dependent on anyone or anything other than himself for his survival was an anathema to him, but now he was dependent on this little collection of things. His doctor had given him a book on how to manage his diabetes, but the words might as well have been written in Chinese for all the sense it made to Dean. He knew that he’d have to watch his diet even more carefully now, something that was already tough when you spent most of your time traveling and eating in shitty restaurants. 

The doctor had recommended that since he traveled so much, he ask a friend to help him and the idea stuck in his throat. He knew Roman and Seth would gladly help him, but he couldn’t bring himself to consider asking them for help. He’d always prided himself on his ability to take care of himself and anyone else in his life. He’d taken care of his mom until the drugs took her away, he’d taken care of his cousin until DCS took her away, he’d taken care of all of his friends, even when they called him ‘Mom’. He was the one who took care of people, not the other way around.

He settled down to read the book again, if he could figure out how to administer Seth and Roman’s meds without killing either of them(at least by medication), he could figure out how to deal with this act of treason his body had committed against him. 

After several hours and a lot of Googling, he was pretty sure he knew what he was doing. He took notes until he was comfortable enough to handle it. He could do this and his brothers never needed to know.

Dean loved his brothers, but he couldn’t tell them about this, it would just make them worry and he didn’t want them to worry. He’d been taking care of himself for as long as he can remember, he could handle this.


	2. Unplanned Revelation

Disclaimer: These aren’t mine, they belong to WWE. I’m not making any money so don’t sue.

Notes: I am SO sorry! I had a terrible time getting this story to do what I wanted. Part three is coming! 

DSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSR

 

Jericho tried not to sigh as he got his room assignment. He usually roomed with Christian, but Christian was on the Asian tour, so he’d been paired with Ambrose. He understood the reasoning behind it: Rollins was on the Asian leg of the overseas tour and Reigns was recovering from his emergency surgery, which left Ambrose on his own, and given his reputation, Stephanie and Hunter were reluctant to leave him to his own devices. 

Still, he hated being Ambrose’s appointed babysitter. He didn’t have a problem with Ambrose per se, not like Christian and a good chunk of the locker room did; hell, he didn’t think he’d said more than two words to the so-called Lunatic Fringe in the eighteen months Ambrose, Reigns, and Rollins had been part of the main roster, he just hated being made responsible for him.

When it came down to it, though, he was a company guy, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell Stephanie no, so he took his key card and headed to the elevators. To his surprise, he found that the door to their room was slightly ajar. Pushing it open, he found Ambrose standing at the foot of one bed, rummaging through his suitcase.

Ambrose looked up in surprise when Jericho came in, “Can I help you?”

Jericho sighed, “I’m rooming with you.”

Ambrose looked at him for a long moment before laughing, “So you’re my babysitter, huh?”

Jericho sighed with relief, at least Ambrose wasn’t angry or resentful about this. “Something like that.”

Ambrose sighed, “I told Steph I’d be fine. I’ve been on overseas tours before.” He glanced at Jericho, “If you want to room with your friends, I won’t say anything.”

Jericho smiled in spite of himself, “Nah, it’s cool.” He set down his own suitcase, “I’m gonna grab some dinner at a nice pub I know. Wanna come?”

Ambrose gave him a long, searching look before nodding, “Okay. I’ll warn you, though, I’m not always the most entertaining company.”

Jericho laughed, “No problem.”

DSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSR

True to his word, Ambrose barely said anything except to order his food and beer. Jericho didn’t mind though, he was tired and not really up to being chatty.

As they ate, Jericho kept stealing glances at Ambrose, he was nothing like what Jericho had heard. He was quiet and polite, answered any question Jericho asked but didn’t try to start up a conversation.

Finally, while they were waiting for dessert, he looked at Jericho, “What time is it?”

“It’s eight pm, London time,” Jericho said. “Why?”

“Seth and I both promised Roman that we’d check in after we landed, but Roman’s been taking advantage of his recovery to spend time with his daughter and I didn’t want to call while they were out.”

Jericho’s eyes widened, he’d heard that Ambrose and Reigns had patched things up with Rollins, though the full story was still unknown, but he hadn’t expected this.

Ambrose seemed oblivious to his confusion and scrolled through his contacts before dialing a number. Jericho watched as a smile came over his face.

“Hey Jojo, what’re you doing on your daddy’s phone?” Ambrose listened for a minute. “Did he give you permission? Okay, is he around? Oh, okay.” Jojo seemed to have asked a question because Dean’s smile widened. 

“Where am I? I’m in England. Do you remember Uncle Seth and me showing you where we were going to be going? Yeah, I was going to Europe and Uncle Seth was going to Asia.” He laughed at something on the other end of the phone. “England is part of Europe, sweetie.”

Jericho laughed, having had similar conversations with his kids.

“Did you guys go to the zoo today? You did? Was it fun? You got to feed the giraffe? Cool!” Ambrose laughed as he listened to Jojo recount her day with her dad.

Jericho watched the conversation in amusement and amazement. No one in the locker room would believe that Dean Ambrose was so good with kids.

Ambrose listened to his phone, then, “Oh, he’s coming downstairs? Okay, I’ll see you when I get back. Love you, Jojo.” After a second, he smiled. “Hey, Uce. No, we landed a couple of hours ago.” 

He frowned, “Dude, you were spending a day with your daughter, I didn’t want to bother you. No, everything went fine, it was the usual overseas flight: Crowded, noisy, bad food, terrible movie.” 

Roman seemed to be warning him about something because Ambrose rolled his eyes, “Dude, she’s probably gonna get twice the usual amount of souvenirs to make up for you being stuck at home. I make no promises, but I’ll try. No, poor Jericho got stuck being my babysitter. Yes, I’ll try and be good.” 

He smiled, “Right back at you, Uce. Bye.”

He’d no sooner hung up than his phone rang, Jericho saw a worried look cross his face before he answered.

“Joey? What’s wrong?” Ambrose rolled his eyes, “I packed a bottle into the front pocket of his backpack just in case he forgot or packed it in the wrong bag. Yeah, in the front pocket. Find it? Okay, give him a swat upside the head for me. Bye” He hung up with an exasperated sigh.

Jericho laughed, “Someone getting airsick?”

Ambrose laughed, “Seth. He thinks he put his ginger pills in his suitcase, not his carry-on. Joey wanted to know if it was possible for the pills to be someplace else.”

That honestly surprised Jericho. From the way Christian and the others described the members of The Shield, he wasn’t sure he’d trust Ambrose with a goldfish, yet what he was seeing with his own eyes was very different from what he’d heard.

DSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSRDSR

Over the next week, Jericho had come to the conclusion that the Dean Ambrose Christian and the others had described only existed in the locker room. In the locker room and in the ring, he could kind of see what they were talking about, but once they were out of the arena, Ambrose was a totally different person. He was still pretty quiet, but he was slowly coming out of his shell and turned out to be a really fun guy to be around. Jericho had been surprised to discover that they liked a lot of the same bands and similar senses of humor, though Ambrose’s humor was a little more dry than his.

One of the biggest surprises was Dean’s relationship to his former stablemates. From what he’d heard, Ambrose was the unstable, untrustworthy one, but in reality, he seemed to be the one running the show. He talked to Reigns and Rollins every day, even when he was dead on his feet. Making sure that Roman was taking it easy after his surgery, that Seth wasn’t getting too stressed out and was staying away from sushi restaurants, which seemed to involve a funny story that Ambrose refused to tell him.

What really fascinated him was that while Ambrose fussed over his friends, he never wanted them to know if he wasn’t feeling well. Jericho had watched as he took a call from Rollins and scolded him for working with a migraine(something Seth apparently suffered quite frequently from) while Ambrose himself had been miserable with a sinus headache. Another time, he’d gotten on Roman about taking it easy as he recovered from his hernia surgery, while nursing a tweaked knee

It bugged him. Ambrose seemed like a really nice guy, but it seemed that Reigns and Rollins walked all over him.

Another thing was that Ambrose seemed to spend a long time in the bathroom. It made no sense since Ambrose seemed like a pretty low maintenance guy. Jericho was beginning to have his suspicions, but didn’t want to say anything without actual proof.

The clues were ambiguous, Ambrose never acted strung out, never seemed to have the munchies, or a weird smell, but the time he spent in the bathroom bothered Jericho.

It came to a head one night during a match. Jericho and Ambrose were teamed up against Big Show and Kane and Ambrose was clearly struggling. He nearly cost them the match and was only saved by Jericho making a timely tag and hitting Kane with Code Breaker.

As soon as they were backstage, Chris watched as Ambrose explained his problem as a byproduct of the sinus medicine he’d been taking, grab something out of his bag, and stumble out of the locker room. Determined to get to the bottom of this, Jericho followed him out the door.

He found Ambrose in Catering, slumped over one of the tables, a can of soda in front of him, a small black case next to the can.

As Jericho came closer and saw the items, his angry words died in his throat. It was an insulin kit. He looked at Ambrose, took in his pale, sweaty face, and shaking hands, and realized what was happening: Ambrose was diabetic and his blood sugar had tanked.

Jericho sat next to the younger man, anger replaced with concern, feeling very guilty about his earlier suspicions. Those extended bathroom visits must’ve been to check his blood sugar and give himself insulin.

He waited until Dean’s complexion began looking normal again before he spoke, “How long have you been diabetic?”

Ambrose sighed, “A couple of months.”

Jericho’s frown deepened, “Steph never mentioned any health things.” Then it hit him, “No one knows about this, do they?”

Ambrose shook his head, “No.”

Jericho looked at the younger man in shock, “Why would you hide something like this?! This is a serious condition.”

Ambrose shrugged, “It’s not a big deal, I can take care of myself.”

Jericho sighed, “This really isn’t something you should be handling on your own. What about Reigns and Rollins?”

Dean shook his head, “No, I can’t tell them.”

“Why not?” Jericho challenged. “I’ve been listening to you all week; you mother them even when you’re tired and not feeling well.”

Dean shook his head, “They need me to take care of them. Seth would rather bash his own brains out than take his migraine shot when he really needs it; Joey and Jamie try, but I wouldn’t trust those two with a fish. Roman has to be careful about the pain meds he takes because some of them interact badly with his allergy meds and cause him to hallucinate, and that doesn’t include what the allergy stuff does to him on its own. This?” He gestured to the kit on the table, “Is nothing. I can handle this.”

“You can,” Jericho conceded, “you seem like a pretty capable guy. Thing is, you shouldn’t have to, and judging by tonight, it looks like you’re struggling a little.”

Ambrose sighed, “Tonight was a…fluke. I’m used to going on at the start or middle of the show, I wasn’t expecting us to be the main event and it threw me off.”

Jericho narrowed his eyes, “Yeah? How many ‘flukes’ have you had?” At Ambrose’s uncomfortable shift, he nodded. “Kind of what I thought.”

Ambrose sighed, “It’s just-I found out right before the amp up for WrestleMania and getting adjusted to everything is taking longer than I expected.”

“All the more reason to tell someone,” Jericho said, reasonably.

Ambrose shook his head, “I can’t tell them.”

“Why not?” Jericho asked in exasperation. 

“Because I can handle it!” Ambrose said, a little louder than he’d planned. “I can handle it. I just need time to get it right.”

Jericho sighed, “Dean, this is a serious condition, there’s nothing wrong with admitting that you’re struggling.”

Ambrose dug in, “I can’t tell them.”

Jericho wanted to argue, but he could see that Dean was determined, so he tried a different tactic, “Why don’t I help you for the rest of the tour?”

Ambrose looked skeptical, “You know how to handle diabetes?”

Jericho nodded, “Yup. One of my daughters has it, and a couple of friends from the biz had it, so I know all about dealing with it while on tour.”

That seemed to relieve Ambrose somewhat, but he still hesitated, “You don’t mind?”

Jericho shook his head, “Not at all. We’ll talk about it when we get back to the hotel, okay?”

***A Few Days Later***

During the next week, Jericho and Ambrose worked together in and out of the ring. Every night, after the show, they’d sit down in their hotel room and go over Dean’s numbers, and figuring out what caused blood sugar spikes and drops, offering tips and advice on what he’d seen work with his friends and daughter.

Try as he might, he couldn’t convince Ambrose to consider talking to Reigns or Rollins about his diabetes. Everytime he brought it up, Ambrose insisted that he couldn’t tell Reigns and Rollins what was wrong.

Finally, Jericho refused to back off until Dean told him why he wouldn’t let his friends help him with his diabetes.

“Because they’ll leave, okay?!”

Jericho tried not to show his confusion, everything he’d heard about The Shield said that they took care of each other. “What makes you say that?”

“Because that’s what always happens!” Dean said, his eyes filling with tears. “I’ve always taken care of the people in my life, but the minute I need their help, they always leave. As long as I don’t tell Seth and Roman about this, they won’t leave me.”

In his life and career, Jericho had heard some pretty sad things, but that had to rank up there as one of the saddest. For a long moment, he didn’t know what to say, then, “Dean, if Reigns and Rollins are really your friends, they’ll help you.”

Dean frowned, “But what if they don’t? I can’t risk losing them because my fucking pancreas decided to quit working.”

Jericho opened his mouth to argue some more, but Dean shook his head firmly. “I’m not going to tell them. It’s not worth it. Thank for the tips.” He stood up and went over to his bed and flopped down.

Jericho watched the younger man, not sure what to say or do. Ambrose needed help with this and he couldn’t be there to help him every night. What he should do is go to Stephanie and Hunter and inform them of what was going on. That’s what a good company man would do. However, Jericho was also a veteran of the business and a man of the locker room and ratting out someone isn’t something he wanted to do.

As he thought, an idea came to him; Ambrose clearly thought the world of Reigns and Rollins. Maybe if he talked to them, he could get a clearer idea of the situation. Bottom line, he was going to make sure Ambrose got help for his condition, that’s what a good company and locker room guy would do.

TBC


	3. Revelations and Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jericho takes the bull by the horns and gives Roman and Seth something to think about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. They belong to WWE. I'm making no money from this, don't sue me.
> 
> Note: I did my best to keep the information as accurate as possible while not bogging down the story.

“Hey guys, can I talk to you for a second?”

Seth and Roman turned to find Chris Jericho walking up to them, a concerned look on his face.

“What’s up?” Neither of them had had much to do with Jericho, so him wanting to talk to them was a surprise.

The older man looked hesitant and worried, “Did Dean mention anything about the European tour?”

Seth and Roman shook their heads, “No. Well, he mentioned how much fun he’d had and that you were really cool to hang out with,” Roman said. “Why? Did something happen that he’s not telling us?” Other than talking about how much fun he’d had, Dean had said very little about the tour, which made them both suspicious. Dean was such a history buff, they’d both expected to regaled about the stuff he’d visited.

Jericho sighed, angrily, “He didn’t tell you.” 

“Tell us what?” Now Seth and Roman were both worried, wondering what could be so serious.

Jericho sighed again, “Dean’s a diabetic, he has been for at least a few months.”

Seth and Roman stared at the older man in shock. “He’s what?!” Both of them could picture all the complications that this could cause, especially in the ring or on the road.

“How-How did you find out?” Seth sputtered.

Jericho sighed. “His blood sugar tanked in the middle of a match. I thought he was on drugs and went to confront him, and found him trying to get his blood sugar back up.”

“Did he say why he didn’t tell us?” Roman asked.

Jericho sighed, “His explanation as that he took care of you guys. When I pushed him, he said that as long as he didn’t tell you guys what was going on, you wouldn’t leave like everyone else had.”

Both men sighed, now a lot of things that had puzzled them about Dean’s recent behavior made a lot of sense.

Jericho looked from one to the other, “Look, I don’t know you guys very well, but I can’t believe that you would end a friendship over him needing your help.”

Roman sighed, “No, but I’m not surprised that Dean believes that.” At Jericho’s look, he sighed again, “Dean’s got a bad history of people abandoning him, usually when he needs them the most.”

Seth nodded, “Me turning on them didn’t help.” 

Jericho nodded, “He said as much and got pretty pissed when I tried to push it. I normally wouldn’t say anything, but Dean’s struggling with this and whether he likes it or not, he needs help.”

Roman sighed, Dean’s mothering had always been a private joke among the three of them, but both Roman and Seth were frustrated by Dean’s refusal to let them return the favor. They both knew that Dean wasn’t as indestructible as he liked to pretend, they knew about his frequent headaches and sinus troubles, not to mention the various aches and pains he refused to take pain meds for. They’d always let it go because taking care of them seemed to make Dean happy.

“Thanks for telling us, man,” Seth was saying to an obviously relieved Jericho. “We’ll talk to him.”

“No,” Roman said suddenly. At Seth and Jericho’s looks, he sighed. “If we just go in and confront him about this, he’s going to get defensive and we won’t get anywhere.” He looked at Jericho, “You said that you helped him during the tour, right?” At Jericho’s nod, “How about you tell us what we need to know, what we need to look for, so we’ll be able to help him.”

Jericho nodded, “Okay. We’ll meet up after the show.”

Getting through the rest of the show was hard, thankfully Dean was on another leg of the tour, so they didn’t have to think of an excuse of why they were going out without him.

Finally, the show was done and they met up at a local diner. After finishing their meals, Jericho got down to business.

“Okay, down to business. Dean has Type 1 Diabetes. The biggest thing is that he’s insulin dependent and needs to watch his diet even more closely to avoid getting his blood sugar too high or letting it drop too much.

“From what I saw in Europe, Dean’s pretty good at keeping his blood sugar normal, and he checks it regularly, but he struggles with it during shows.”

“Okay, what’s biggest thing we need to know to help him?” Seth asked.

“The biggest thing is keeping his blood sugar up at work,” Jericho said. “Lots of exercise can cause blood sugar to drop which can be dangerous if it’s not caught in time. That’s what happened in Europe. Fortunately we were in a tag match, but if that were to happen in a singles match, he’d be in trouble.”

Roman nodded, “What do we need to keep an eye out for?”

“With Dean, he seemed to have trouble concentrating, he was shaky, pale, and sweating more than was normal. If that happens, you need to get him something sweet ASAP. One of my daughters has diabetes and we keep some Jolly Ranchers on hand just in case.” He reached into his bag and pulled out a book. “This a copy of the book my daughter’s doctor gave us. It explains everything in plain English: What to look for, symptoms, what to do, when to call for help, that sort of thing.” He handed the book to Roman, who quickly flipped through it. “Plus, I’m always available if you have questions. Also, you guys need to convince him to tell Hunter and Stephanie. Dean isn’t the first guy in WWE to have diabetes and there’s protocol in place to help him stay healthy.”

Seth and Roman nodded, “Yeah, Eki was one of them,” Roman said, thinking of his cousin.

Jericho nodded with a sad smile. “You know, I’m really glad I told you guys about this. I listened to Dean talk to you guys while we were in Europe and I was actually mad at you two.”

Roman and Seth looked at him in confusion, “Why?” Roman asked.

“Because, not knowing you guys, and just listening Dean’s end of the conversations, I sometimes felt like you took advantage of him or walked all over him,” Jericho admitted. “He’d always insist on taking your calls even when he was tired, or sore, or not feeling great. It just…made me mad for him, especially after I talked him about his diabetes, that he felt he needed to do that. But I can see that you two care about him just as much, so I don’t feel so bad about betraying his trust.” 

He shook both their hands and gave them his cellphone number before getting up to pay for his meal, leaving Roman and Seth with a lot to think about.

TBC

Note: Eki is Eddie Fatu aka Jamal, aka Umaga, Rikishi's brother.


	4. Now What Do We Do?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roman and Seth discuss Jericho's revelations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Diclaimer: I don't own anything here, they belong to WWE. I'm not making money so don't sue me.

They paid for their meals and headed back to their cars. As Seth and Roman were driving back to the next town, Seth’s phone rang, and a quick check showed that it was Dean. “Crap, it’s Dean.”

Roman winced, “Don’t say anything about Jericho until we’ve read the book.”

Seth nodded, “’Sup, man?”

“Where’ve you guys been?” Dean said. “I’ve been trying to call you all night.”

“We decided to grab some dinner with a few of the boys and we must’ve both turned our phones off,” Seth said honestly. “What’s up?”

“Nightly check in? We’ve been doing this for over a year now?” Dean said, sounding a little annoyed. They’d started doing nightly check-ins after renewing their friendship. Dean would call or check on them to make sure that they were okay, and making sure they took any meds they were prescribed, something neither Roman or Seth were very good at remembering at the end of the night.

“Oh. Sorry, man, long night,” Seth said, shaking his head. With Jericho’s revelations, a lot of routine things had slipped his mind.

“S’okay. I know you’re probably tired. Ask Roman how his shoulder is doing.

“His shoulder?” Then Seth remembered that Roman had hit the ring post shoulder first a little too hard the other night on SmackDown.

He glanced over at Roman, “Dean wants to know how your shoulder’s doing.” 

Roman rolled the aforementioned shoulder and shrugged, “Feels okay.”

“Uce says that his shoulder feels fine,” Seth reported.

“Thank fuck, that hit looked so bad. Tell him to be sure to put his heating thing on it anyway, just in case,” Dean said. “Okay, how about you? How’s your knee?”

“It’s fine,” Seth said, which was true, but even if his knee had been screaming, he wasn’t going to tell Dean; not , after hearing what Jericho had initially thought about him and Roman. For the first time, maybe ever, he found himself really listening to his brother’s voice. Dean sounded tired, and since he was working with Kevin, who could be a little stiff on the best days, he was probably sore.

“Are you okay?” He found himself asking before he could stop himself.

“Me?” Dean sounded surprised by the question, which just made Seth feel worse. “I’m fine. You know me, ten feet tall and bulletproof. Why?”

“You, uh, you just sounded tired. And I know Kevin can be kind of stiff, even on a good day.”

“Yeah, but I gave him as good back. He’s a good guy, by the way,” Dean said. “Anyway, back to you. You take that new pill your headache doctor gave you?” Seth’s doctor had prescribed him a new daily medication to help his migraines.

“Yup, took it this morning, it’s really been helping,” Seth replied. It felt strange to have this conversation with Dean when he really wanted to scream, ‘Why didn’t you tell us?! Why don’t you trust us to help you?!’ at Dean, which would’ve gotten them nowhere.

“Great,” Dean sounded relieved, “I’m glad you asked him about it, Seth.” 

It was sad that it had never occurred to Seth how stressful taking care of them must be for Dean. Dean never complained, not even when Seth’s migraines kept him up all night or when Roman’s allergy meds made him hallucinate or made him over aggressive. Looking at Roman, who was listening to the conversation, Seth knew he was thinking the same thing: things were going to change in their little family.

“Hey, Dean,” Roman called from the driver’s seat, not taking his eyes off the road, “I started that new allergy medication and so far it’s been working pretty good, not even a nightmare.”

“Oh, that’s great, Ro,” Dean said, happily, and then Seth heard him stifle a yawn. “Anything else you guys need?”

“Yeah, but it can wait until tomorrow,” Roman said. “You sound beat, Dimples, go to bed. We’ll deal with the rest tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” Dean sounded a little confused and slightly hurt, but he said goodbye and hung up.

“Great. Now we’ve hurt his feelings,” Seth sighed, putting his phone in his pocket.

Roman sighed, “I know, I’ll make it up to him. It’s just, if I had to listen to him much more, I was going to go off about his diabetes and that would’ve been worse.”

Seth sighed, “What’re we going to do?”

“Well, we’re going to read the book Jericho gave us and figure out how to talk to him about this. Bottom line, there are going to be some changes.”

“Like what?”

“Like you and I taking responsibility for our meds, especially when we’re on different tours. Dean shouldn’t have to call us to be sure, we’re grown men for God’s sake.”

Seth nodded, “I know, but it makes him happy for some odd reason.”

Roman nodded, “I’m not saying that he can’t help us, especially when your migraines hit, but he shouldn’t be staying up after a show just to check in on us. You and I both heard how tired he was, him staying up to check on us is ridiculous.”

“Yeah, I know,” Seth said. “But I’m afraid that if we confront him about the diabetes and say we’ll take care of our own meds and don’t need him to call and check on us, he’s going to assume that we’re abandoning him and he won’t hear what we have to say.”

Roman sighed, “You’re right.” The biggest thing people wouldn’t believe about Dean was how sensitive he was, the guy cried during scary movies, for heaven’s sake. Roman could just picture the devastated look on his friend’s face if that all got dumped on him at once. It would seem like a complete confirmation of his worst fears. No, they couldn’t do that to Dean.

“Okay, we’ll talk to him about the diabetes first, that’s more important than anything else. Then, we’ll ease into the meds thing later.” He bit his lip. “Do you think Renee knows?”

Seth frowned, “If we didn’t know, she probably doesn’t either. I know Renee and I know that she would not keep quiet about something like this and she wouldn’t let Dean keep quiet about it.”

“Okay, do you think we should tell her what’s going on? I mean, if Dean won’t listen to us, he’ll listen to her.”

“I don’t know. I don’t want him to think that we’re all ganging up on him. Plus, that’s really something he should tell her. If we can’t get him to listen to us, we’ll tell her.”

“Which brings up the big problem: How are we going to talk to him about this?”

That was the biggest question of all. How did they confront Dean about this? Dean was one of the toughest people either of them had ever met, but he was extremely skittish when the focus was on him.

Just confronting him wouldn’t work, Dean would get defensive and both of them were aware of how quickly Dean could turn a conversation around and talk in circles until you didn’t remember what the conversation was about. They’d both fallen prey to that more than once in the time they’d known Dean.

They discussed at length on how to confront Dean without making him feel threatened, but neither could come up with a solution that would solve the problem.

They spent the rest of the trip reading the book Jericho had given them. Seth discovered that the book was available in eBook format and he could get it on his phone and read it aloud. By the time they got to the next town, both were feeling pretty confident that they would be able to handle things if Dean had a ‘fluke’ as Jericho had put it, but they still hadn’t decided on how to confront Dean or how or if they should tell Hunter and Stephanie.

The universe would solve those problems for them.

TBC


	5. Flukes and More Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean has a fluke and discovers what's been going on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I own nothing here! It all belongs to Vince McMahon and WWE.

Seth stood on his side of the ring, trying desperately not to panic. He, Roman, and Dean were in the middle of an eight man tag match with New Day, and the Dudleys and Dean was in trouble. He was pale, sweating, and he was beginning to struggle against Xavier, who he normally would’ve had flattened in no time. Thank God for Bubba Ray who tagged himself in and cleaned house.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of the match, Seth and Roman shared a look, they’d discussed what to do if Dean had a ‘fluke’ and both felt like they could handle it.

“You better get him into the back,” Seth could hear Bubba telling Roman and he watched as the older man helped Roman get Dean into the back. He rushed to the back as calmly as he dared.

By the time he got to the back, Roman had taken Dean into a back room where he was being attended to by Dr. Sanders. Hunter and Stephanie were there, looking extremely concerned, as was Jericho.

“He’s diabetic,” Roman was explaining to Doctor Sanders, who nodded.

Okay, I need someone to fetch me a can of regular soda or juice. I also need someone to find Dean’s insulin kit.”

“I’ll get his drink,” Stephanie said. “What kind of soda or juice do you like, Dean?”

“Pep-Pepsi or apple juice,” Dean said softly.

“I’ll get his kit,” Jericho said, giving Seth an unreadable look before running towards the locker room.

Seth sat with Roman, as the Samoan comforted their friend, who was slumped against him.

Hunter was pacing, Seth could tell he wanted to say something, but he was waiting.

Stephanie came back with a cup of juice, “Here you go.”

Roman helped Dean drink the juice since Dean’s hands were shaking very badly. Once the prescribed amount had been drunk, Doctor Sanders nodded at Jericho, who’d returned with a small black case.

“Okay, I’ll be back in fifteen minutes to check his blood sugar and talk to him,” Dr. Sanders said, before getting to his feet and leaving the room.

Seth watched Hunter and Stephanie’s faces, he wanted to say something to defuse the situation, but wasn’t sure what he could say.

“I’m fired, aren’t I?” Dean finally said, his face buried in his hands.

Both Hunter and Stephanie looked confused, “Why would you be fired, Ambrose?” Hunter asked, no trace of sarcasm in his voice.

“Dean, we’re not happy that you didn’t tell us about your condition, and we will be having a talk about it, but you’re not fired,” Stephanie said.

Dean looked at them like they’d both just started speaking Chinese, “I-I’m not?”

Stephanie shook her head. “No, you’re not. There’s protocol for this and we’ll go over it tomorrow, but right now, I think it’s more important that you get your blood sugar back up. Come see me tomorrow before SmackDown and we’ll talk about things, okay? Bottom line: you’re not fired or in very serious trouble, got me?” At Dean’s hesitant nod, she smiled and squeezed his shoulder before leaving, taking Hunter with her.

Jericho smiled a little and sat down next to Dean, “See? I told you they had protocol in place for this.”

Dean nodded, shakily, “Yeah, I just-“ Suddenly, something occurred to him and he fixed his piercing eyes on Seth and Roman. “Wait. Chris didn’t tell the doctor I’m diabetic, you did,” he pointed at Roman. He looked between three guilty faces and his eyes narrowed in a way that Roman and Seth knew meant danger. “What the fuck is going on?”

Roman and Seth exchanged looks, this is exactly what they were trying to avoid: Dean feeling trapped and defensive. Then Dean’s brain finished connecting all of the dots he jumped to his feet. “You sonofabitch! You told them!” He pointed an accusing finger at Jericho.

Jericho put up his hands, “Dean, I was worried about you. I was afraid that something like this would happen, so I talked to them Saturday and-“

“You went behind my back?! I told you I didn’t want them to know!” Dean was in full Moxley mode, which was like trying to juggle dynamite in a room full of lit candles.

“Dean, we want to help you,” Seth said, trying to defuse things. 

“I don’t need your help!” Dean said, backing towards the door. “I’ve been handling it just fine by myself!”

Seth wanted to point out that Dean was clearly not handling it well since his blood sugar had tanked in the middle of a match, but he knew Dean well enough to know that arguing with him right now would just make it worse.

“Dean, we know you can handle this,” Roman said in his strong, but soothing way. “You take great care of Seth and me, we want to help you take care of yourself.”

Dean looked between the three guilty faces of his friends and Roman and Seth could see that his mind was turning over this new information and jumping the wrong conclusions.

“Fuck you! Just leave me alone!” Dean stormed out of the room, brushing past Renee without a word.

The blonde broadcaster watched her boyfriend leave with wide eyes, then turned to the worried and guilty faces of his friends. “Anyone want to tell me what the hell is going on?!”

TBC


End file.
